Long before Samuel F. B. Morse electrically transmitted his famous message 'What hath God wrought?' from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844, there were signaling systems that enabled people to communicate over distances.

The Library of Congress highlights select items that both influenced and directed Samuel F. B. Morse's growth and eventual invention of the telegraph.

Approximately 6,500 items from the Samuel F. B. Morse Papers in the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress have been digitized, including correspondence, diaries, printed matter, maps, drawings and miscellany. These document Morse's invention of the electromagnetic telegraph, his participation in the development of telegraph systems in the United States and abroad, his career as a painter, his family life, his travels, and ...